Reaper 4.0 has hit prerelease, the latest version of this $40+, lightweight (measured in a handful of megs) DAW for Windows or Mac. The banner feature is called WALTER, “Window Arrangement Logic Template Engine for REAPER.” The idea: you should have your music production screen look the way you want, with elements moved to whatever […]

Sol, an interactive “spatial” installation, examines the roots of solar energy. (Your sun: the greatest nuclear fusion power source within light years.) Visitors to the installation get to participate in “staging” the whole cycle, playing with particles that simulate nuclear fusion, then watching the response of DMX-controlled LED and fluorescent lighting, all set to an […]

SoundCloud for iPhone from SoundCloud on Vimeo. While it’s easy to focus on one platform or another, a profound trend in 2010 has been toward sharing media in the cloud. The basic concept is as old as the Internet, but from applications like Instamatic for photographers to syncing storage to tote around documents on iPads, […]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Synths? Imagining an instrument from a clean sheet of paper is an essential part of the design process. It can remind us of the extent of possibilities – and, sometimes, why compromise is necessary. The German site Amazona.de this week unveiled mock-ups of an instrument conceived by their community. The […]

CPU (Central Processing Unit) – 2min edit vs2 from 1n0ut on Vimeo. The use of illusion to create onstage ghosts (Pepper’s Ghost) dates back to the 19th Century; optical effects and dramatic trickery far further. So, naturally, new digital techniques are sure to provide ammunition for creative theatrical staging, as in this work, “CPU.” In […]

TRON: Legacy Projection Mapping trailer – Southbank London from Guided Collective on Vimeo. The original Tron film, combining optical effects, hand-painted techniques, and elemental computer graphics, had a big impact on my visual imagination as a young person, as I’m sure it did many. The glowing inner world of that movie has surely had an […]

Dead-simple, focused on one task, the Wicks Looper reminds us why we liked looping. And I love the handmade gift case he made to go with it – an idea worth duplicating with other gear. All images courtesy Brian McNamara. For all that latest plug-in may perform every kind of synthesis ever, much of electronic […]

In Robert Seidel‘s “motion painting” Meander, digital video is fragmented into atomic textures, as sound and visuals alike crackle through streams and clouds. Don’t mention the word “glitch” or “datamosh”: it’s really more like digital action painting. Working with the visual development environment TouchDesigner, Robert collaborates with sonic artist Heiko Tippelt, as seen here in […]

Photo (CC-BY) Valerie Renee. Musicians get loads of gift guides. Still photographers, too. Visualists – people who care about live visuals, fun synesthetic toys, experimentation for your eyes, and visual innovation – not so much. Let’s change that. Whether it’s a book about Nam June Paik, a set of lenses, a novel live controller, we […]

Therenect – Kinect Theremin from Martin Kaltenbrunner on Vimeo. Who says technology has to move fast and die young? Leon Theremin may have been a full century ahead of his time, before computers, before transistors, before jet engines or atomic power or rockets. ReacTable creator Martin Kaltenbrunner has a virtual Theremin prototype built with Microsoft’s […]